The DUNOLLIE Project
Opening a new visitor attraction for Oban
Welcoming the worldwide Clan Macougall
Conserving our local and national heritage
Learning about and enjoying our past
The Dunollie Project will be the fulfillment of the wishes of many people from many perspectives, and has been born out of the enthusiasm and encouragement of clansmen, local people, historians and archaeologists.
Above all, it is being championed by the Chief: Morag, Madam MacDougall of MacDougall, who with her family has brought the management of Dunollie into the 21st century and is the chairperson of the MacDougall of Dunollie Preservation Trust.
Opening Dunollie to the public will enable people to enjoy the heritage and will kickstart a major programme to conserve, document and manage the heritage onsite, from the massive medieval castle walls right down to the delicate silk of a 19th century tartan slipper.
It will also provide a permanent museum home for the Hope MacDougall Collection, which tells the other side of Highland life from the viewpoint of the crofter and the townsman - the people who live in Oban now and the forebears of the thousands who left for the New World.
It will create a new amenity for the people of Oban and Argyll; a place where children and adults can discover heritage of national and local importance, or simply enjoy walking the waymarked paths of a summer's evening.
It will provide a desperately needed new tourism attraction for North Argyll, helping to attract and keep visitors here, and placing Oban firmly on the heritage tourism map in Scotland.
The Dunollie Project is only just beginning, and will take years to fulfill. It has been given the best start possible by the Heritage Lottery Fund, who committed over £35,000 to help with planning and development work. Despite an early setback due to the scarcity of money nationally at this time, the plans for Dunollie continue, and will shift in structure and emphasis to meet the challenges as they come.
Much has been done - and there is a mighty amount to do!
Support us - join with us, and together we will get Dunollie open.
